


Evermore

by Miny21



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Minecraft Story Mode (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Adventure & Romance, F/F, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Gen, I'm Bad At Titles, My First Work in This Fandom, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other characters not mentioned in these tags, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Song names for titles!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-19 14:30:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22712302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miny21/pseuds/Miny21
Summary: After the events of The Admin Crisis, when the dust settled, Petra and Jesse went out in the world in search of new adventures! But together and alone in these new lands, these two will find out how much their company means to one another.
Relationships: Jesse/Petra (Minecraft)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	1. Off to see the world

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from Rusty Egan - Evermore ft. Emily Kavanaugh
> 
> \----
> 
> Well, hello there! First time writing and posting romance! 
> 
> I know it won't be perfect, that happens, so I welcome any tips and criticism.
> 
> So, I hope you will enjoy it and I will see you 'till the end!

Well, here they are, at the end of the known world.

The last few days have been quite uneventful. Nothing interesting jumped in their way, nothing but endless walking through forests, deserts and rivers just to get to the end of Jacks map.

But, in the end, everything paid off. They were close, one more village left until they headed into pure wilderness. From there on nothing but new and unexplored lands! Just as Ivor would say, ‘Adventure!’.

It was Petra’s idea, she’s the adventurer after all, she's in her natural habitat here. If it was on the map, somebody must’ve explored at some point before them, and just as likely must’ve took everything that wasn’t nailed down, and probably what was nailed down too. So, why not go even further? Somewhere new!

“Ow, stupid flint and steel!” swore Petra, plucking Jesse out of her thoughts, sucking on her finger. With a sigh, Petra looked at her finger, well, thankfully, nothing but a scratch. “I give up! Hey, Jesse, wanna give it a try?”

“Alright, sure”, putting the map copy away, Jesse joined Petra in her attempts to light up the fire. But, unlike her, it took Jesse just one try. Bathed in an orange glow, Jesse could help herself from giving Petra her trademark grin.

“Showoff”, she huffed, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. “Hey, don’t look at me like that, I could have done it myself, you know.”

“Aaand then why did you ask for my help?” her grin now turned into one smug, sly smile.

Petra narrowed her eyes, and after a moment of silent battle of stares, she deflated.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Don’t rub it in, though!” she said, failing to wipe of Jesse’s dumb grin. “Anyways, how much until we reach the village?”

She was curious, truly, but it also had the benefit of finally making Jesse lose that smug smile. She pulled out the map close and gestured her to come see.

“So, we’re here” Jesse pointed to the forest where the shack they took as shelter was. “And the village is here” and then she pointed to a small spot two steps away from the border of the map. “By how much we traveled by now, I think we’ll reach it just in time for lunch. Perfect time, if I say so myself. I’m honestly tired of apples and dried meat.” Petra chuckled lightly as Jesse stuffed the map back into her pocket.

“Good,” she nodded. “Ugh, Jesse, can you believe it?” Petra put her arm around Jesse’s shoulder “We’re finally _here_! The edge of the know world. From now one there’s nothing except new, unexplored lands! Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yeah, I know!” Petra grinned and pulled Jesse in a tight side hug. “Man, I’ve never seen you get so excited like now.”

“True,” Petra lessened the hug, but didn’t let Jesse go, instead opting to rest her head on Jesse's head. “I mean look!” she said with a swiping motion of her hand. “I’m on a great adventure with someone dear, what’s there to not be excited about?”

Petra stayed silent for a moment, enjoying everything around her, just to be brought back to reality by Jesse.

“Yeah, dearest of friends!” she exclaimed.

“Yeah!” she let him go as if her shoulders burned. “Of course, friends…” she finished it lamely, followed by an awkward laugh. Well, she hoped that her disappointed didn’t make itself known, and that the uncomfortable warmth hadn’t turned her face into the same shade as her hair.

Jesse just thinned her lips and raised an eyebrow, questioning her words.Honestly, Jesse could be gullible in some moments, she just hoped that this was one of those moments. Thankfully, in the end, Jesse just shrugged.

“Yeah. You ok there, Petra? You seem a bit red…”

Jesse took a step forward, narrowing her vision. Petra, as subtle as she could, looked all around the room, searching for something that could change the topic. Nothing much, here in the shack, a bed, a crafting table, a furnace, a window and a fireplace. Eh, at least the sunset looked nice through the trees.

Wait, sunset?

Bingo!

“Yeah, sorry, you know how I look during sunsets,” she pointed out to the window, Jesse moving towards the glass to watch the sun moving closer and closer to the horizon through the tree trunks. And that gave Petra more than enough time to sigh and rub her face. Yup, it was warmer than normal.

“Hey, yeah, good catch, I totally forgot about the time,” Jesse turned back towards Petra, who took off her helmet and was running a hand through her hair.

“What? It started to feel funny,” she said, looking to the side. Petra wanted to put it back, but Jesse stopped her.

“Wait.” Petra stopped, holding the helmet under her arm instead. “It’s nearly night, I think we should better prepare to go to sleep.” Petra stood for a moment to think, looking outside at the sunset, after which she nodded.

“Yeah, no comment here,” Petra shrugged and rubbed her eyes. “And at least we’re having a solid bed here. Been a while since I’ve got a good night’s sleep”, Petra moved over to the furnace, placing the helmet, the gauntlets, all the bits and pieces that were her armor upon it. By the time she was in normal clothes, so was Jesse – how could she change so fast? – but she was looking at the bed with a thoughtful expression. “It’s just a bed, Jesse, you won’t learn anything new from it.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing. There’s just one bed.”

“Oh, ok. So?”

“And since we haven’t seen any sheep around here, we can’t make another one” Petra nodded slowly, wondering where was Jesse going with the train of thought. “But don’t worry about it. You can have it, won’t be the first time I slept on the – “

“No.” Petra stopped herself from slapping her mouth, but still grimaced on the inside.

“Huh?”

 _Well_ , she opened her mouth, _time to give a good reason_.

“Uh, Jesse look, I can’t simply let you sleep on the floor. I just can’t. I would offer myself to sleep on the floor, buuut I know that _you_ won’t let me.” Jesse nodded and shrugged nonchalantly, well she was right. “How about we share?” the words left her mouth before she could stop them.

Jesse’s vision widened slightly. _This was an interesting proposition_ , she thought while scratching the back of her head. Petra, on the other hand, looked calm as always on the outside, while berating herself on the inside.

_What was that all about? This isn’t her specialty! Fighting and adventuring were her specialties, not talking!_

“Yeah, sure, why not? Won’t hurt to try,” Jesse’s response nearly was nonchalant, almost painfully so, and nearly let Petra with her mouth dropped open. But, trying her hardest not to let it show, she just nodded, going with the flow, following Jesse towards the bed, while the sun was finally setting over the horizon.

By some luck, the bed turned out to be big enough for the both of them, as long as they stood on their sides. Even then, Petra couldn’t feel herself falling asleep, at least not at this moment. They were back to back, Jesse taking it better than her, she fell asleep as soon as she hit the pillow. She didn’t know what she hoped when she had proposed the idea, but she guessed she wanted something…. more? Yeah, more. But what was that more?

Her train of thought was interrupted by something unexpected.

Jesse shifted on her other side, putting her arm over Petra's side.

To say that she froze would be an understatement.

And then, even better, Jesse fidgeted again, holding onto Petra tighter. Now, at the very least, she didn’t have to hide that her face turned redder than her hair.

Well, she said she wanted more. And well, she got it. And, honestly, yeah, she liked it. Just… being close, her holding Petra, feeling her body close to her. Yeah… she could get used to this. Petra sighed and nudged herself closer to Jesse, savoring the moment as long as she could.

There could be a chance that Jesse could feel the same, she wanted it deep in her hearth, but this was also of the risks Petra didn’t want to take. Jesse - Jesse almost didn’t say anything back there in Admin’s Cabin, what about now? What would she think? They went so far together, but still, she couldn’t shake that fear from her mind…

But that was a problem for another time, Petra forced herself to think that. Right now, she got what she wanted. Even if it this was the first and the last time this would happen, she won’t forget it, not for a looong time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title comes from Lukas Graham - Off to see the world


	2. Heroes of Our Time

The morning was uneventful, surprisingly enough. Petra woke up first, still held up in Jesse’s arms. Oh, how much she wanted to stay her, but they had others things on their plate first. They were so close to the village, so close to discovering new territories!

So, with great regret, Petra liberated herself from the, surprising tight, embrace. A few stretches, a few minutes to put the armor on, a few more minutes whittling to pass the time and, would you look at that, Jesse woke up too.

“Hey, you’re finally awake.” Petra jumped off the furnace, while Jesse pulled herself out of the bed. “And quite early too, if I might add. It’s still morning.”

“Really?” looking through the windows, through the tree trunks, the early morning sun could be seen. “Huh, you don’t see that very often from me.”

“After what we have seen in this world, is it surprising that miracles exist?” Petra turned away just for a moment. “Suit up, gotta arrive at the village by lunch…” Petra’s voice trailed off by the time she turned back towards Jesse, suited up and ready to go. “…How?”

“Practice!” she said with a proud smile. “And it’s quite wearer friendly, gotta thank Ivor for that,” Jesse’s half mumbles, her smile now having an awkward tone.

“As expected of him.” Petra shrugged, that man could make anything should he put his mind to it.

“You know? We should bring him something when we’re coming back.” Jesse said, while moving towards the door and making Petra a sign to follow. They didn’t have to gather up anything, bringing only the most bare of necessities.

“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea actually. Through, I think he would like anything as long as it sound or looks _exotic._ ” she chuckled, following Jesse outside the shack and onto the path chosen by her.

“Yup, he would appreciate it anything as long as it’s in one way or another really special.”

“Like what?” Petra took a moment to think. “I guess something magical? Or something ninja related?”

“Or both.” from her tone, Jesse was at least semi-serious.

“You onto something here”, Jesse might have been joking, but that really was a good suggestion. “Just as long as it’s something that won’t blow up half of Beacontown.” Jesse flinched at that idea. “Ah, sorry, didn’t mean anything by it.” Petra rubbed the back of her head. “But hey, at least we know it’s safe under Radar’s care.”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it, but it can be pretty tiring to be a mayor. I know it! Heh, even Romeo, of all people complained about it!” Petra soon joined in her laughter. “But I’m pretty sure he got used to it by now. I got used to it pretty fast, well had to, I’m certain he did it too, by now.”

\---

“Ugh, I can’t take it anymore!” Radar slammed his head on the desk, pens and pencil falling down to the floor from the force. “How was Jesse able to survive all of this paperwork?”

“Well,” Lukas placed down his mug of tea, taking a piece of paper from Radar’s immense pile, looking over it, skimming over its contents, “Jesse was a bit more hands on with Beacontown’s problems. She went there, brought the items, helped build the buildings, etc.”

“And what was the point of that story?” Radar said, his voice still muffled from squishing his face on the desk.

“Good question,” admitted Lukas. “Well, Jesse hated paperwork and didn’t do it, and the one that had to be done I guess – “

“Yes, I did it.” with a groan Radar raised his head and fixed his glasses. “No wonder why there’s so much paperwork now, now there is someone making it!” Lukas couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Don’t worry too much about it, the town was doing well even when Jesse wasn’t doing it.”

“Hmmm, yeah, I guess so. But even then, I don’t think I can sleep at well at night when there is so much paperwork to be done!”

“Whoa there, Radar!” Lukas chuckled softly “You got to take a break from time to time.”

“Well yes, but – “

“But you can do it another day. C’mon I have an idea.” Lukas raised himself from the bookshelf, took his mug and turned towards the exit.

“W-What do you have in mind?” Radar reluctantly got up from his chair to follow Lukas.

“You need some fresh air. And it wouldn’t hurt to do speak with the people, see what they need, things like that. After all, Jesse did it the whole time.”

“Well, if Jesse could do it… Alright, I’m coming.” Radar stopped for one second. “One moment thought.” he said, picking up another piece of paper. “Have we found out who is this W.P. ?”

“No, not really,” Lukas said with a thoughtful expression. “Well... There could be somebody that I know with those initials, but … Nah, couldn’t be her,” he dismissed the thought immediately.

“Oh, who are you talking about?”

“You didn’t read about it? It’s quite a long story,” Lukas shook his head with a humorless smile. “I can tell you on the road if you want it”, Lukas then took a sip of tea.

“Oh yes, I would like to hear about it!”

“Alright, let’s go on then.”

\---

It was midday by the time they arrived at the village, like how Jesse predicted.

A quaint little town, just about a dozen houses in total, including the blacksmith, the store and the church. But even then, it was bustling with activity. There were a few people farming, some were working at the blacksmith or just talking around the village, and through the windows they could see someone reading something in the library.

A few stopped their activities to see who were the newcomers, but soon enough they went back to what they were doing before. Life continued in the village unobstructed by their coming.

“So, what now?” from the look of it, Petra could barely contain her excitement, this village was the only thing between what was known and what was new, and she couldn’t what to see what’s new.

“We go buy something for the road, see if they know about anything in the area then we go on to Adventure!” Petra enthusiastically nodded.

“I’ll go ask around for anything interesting. You go on, see what supplies could we gather around here.”

And with that, Petra was gone, ready to ask some poor villager if there was any quest they could take. Heh, Jesse shook her head at Petra’s enthusiasm. Her energy was infectious, there was no argument to that.

Jesse sighed softly, she was something else, wasn’t she? Something special to her… Ever since the talk they had in Romeo’s Cabin, that’s when she started – no, she realized that what she felt for Petra might be more than just friendship. That moment was etched in her memory, that half shock, in a good kind, believe her or not, and cringe, because she nearly broke Petra’s heart by almost saying nothing.

Maybe one day he could tell her, but as far as she knew, Petra liked her only as a friend. One wrong move and this whole adventure could be turned awkward. What would she say even? She’ll her Petra when – when they’ll be going home, yeah, that could work –

“Ah!” Jesse gasped as she nearly tripped on something soft.

“Meow!” was the undignified call of a cat. A calico cat even.

“Oh, hey there little guy”, Jesse bent down to pet it, the cat immediately coming closer to her hand. “Sorry about that”, even though she stopped petting him, the cat didn’t go away, preferring to follow Jesse and bother her by running through her legs.

And no matter how much she shoo-ed it away, the cat won’t leave her alone. Jesse sighed, well, if the cat didn’t want to leave…

After a short moment of consideration, Jesse quickly picked up the cat and didn’t let it go no matter how much he squirmed in her hands. _That’s what you get for being annoying_ , little cat, he thought with an evil smile.

And what surprised Jesse the most was that none of the villagers were perturbed by her wrangling a cat.

Passing another corner, Jesse saw what she was looking for. From signpost hung a wooden board with the words “The General Store” written in cursive letters. Bingo! Short and concise. Holding onto the cat with one arm, Jesse opened the door to the shop, entering it.

“Hello, there” greeted the shopkeeper the moment Jesse stepped in. ”Welcome to our village! So, watcha needin’?” the villager said, resting an arm on the countertop.

“Hello! Hi, I would want, uh,” the cat managed to finally escape Jesse’s grasp, jumping on the floor, snorting at Jesse and gracefully walking away. With an awkward smile, Jesse turned back to the merchant, the man chuckling softly. “Yeah, like I said, uh, some meat, no pork please, bread, baked potatoes and, I dunno, what would you recommend?”

“Some vegetables, if I say so myself” the man walked around the corner, looking over the shelves and chests around for Jesse’s order. “Something to put in for a stew on the road. You going on the road, right? From how you are dressed seems like it.”

“Yeah! Me and a friend, we’re going out to see what out here.” Jesse nodded.

“Y’know, there was an adventurer like you coming through here a couple days ago. Didn’t stay long, she was in a hurry. Might have seen her?”

“No,” Jesse shook her head, “sorry, haven’t seen anyone on the road here, just the two of us.”

“Oh, well,” closing the last chest, the shopkeeper went to the others side of the counter, putting Jesse’s order on it. “Here’s your order, by the way.”

“Alright, how much?” Jesse was reaching towards her emerald bag, but the shopkeeper stopped her.

“Actually, wait a second. You seem capable enough, and we have quite a problem – “

“Ok, we’ll help!”

“Huh?” the man blinked twice, completely blown back by the young man’s eagerness. “But… I didn’t tell you what the problem was.”

“Oh…” with an embarrassed smile, Jesse rubbed the back of her head. “But the offer still stands. We’re professional problems solvers, and, after all, you said we look capable enough,” Jesse finished proudly.

The man raised a bushy eyebrow.

“Fair enough.” He shrugged. “It started a few days ago, the mine began spilling out too many zombies, more than what would normally spawn in a night.” Jesse widened her eyes, oh yeah, that was quite the problem. “And they’re all coming here, nearly broke a few doors last night.”

“And I presume somebody checked it out or tried to solve it?”

“In a way, there was this group, went toward the mines during the day but when they saw how many zombies were actually there they turned back and offered to reinforce some of the doors where they could.”

“That many, huh?” the shopkeeper nodded.

“Yup, saw it with their own eyes. Wanted to ask the other adventurer girl to help, but she left just at the right moment. Or at the wrong one, depending on how you want to see it.”

“Alright then, we’ll help, like I said we would do. So where is this problem cave?”

“Alrighty then, sweetie, let me tell you…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title comes from Dragonforce - Heroes of Our Time


	3. I will follow you into the dark

“And this is how I found out about the cave,” and with a wave of her hand, Jesse showed Petra the mine entrance.

“Nice one. Like a true quest, somebody asked for our help. I had asked around instead, and one person turned me towards the next person, who knew more than the last one and so on and so forth until I got to the mayor. Same story as yours, Jesse.” Petra went a few steps forward towards the mouth of the mine, looking into the dark depths of the cave. “Why isn’t it light up? It’s a mine, first of all, it should be full of torches.”

“Maybe the zombies knocked them off?”

“All of them? Nah, they’re too stupid for that. There would have been at least a few of them still be up, but nope, it’s pitch black in here.” Petra turned back to Jesse. “Got the torches?”

“What do you think?” Jesse pulled out two stacks of torches. “Here, one for each.”

“Thanks.” with a nod, she grabbed her stack and lighted it up. “Let’s go, we still got some time before night fall.”

\---

Jesse was in lead, with a torch checking the road ahead, while Petra placed torch after torch on the right wall of the cave. For now, the corridor was straight as an arrow, with some holes now patched with cobblestone, former ore veins most likely.

“I don’t like it”, whispered Petra, while placing another torch on the wall, and avoiding an overturned minecart. A cart practically decorated with dents. And also one, from the lack of blood or items around, whose miner escaped unharmed. “I mean, you can see it too, right?”

Jesse didn’t say anything, she just turned back to Petra, enough so she’ll see her in the dim light, and gave her a nod. There wasn’t any need to say more, this reaction was more than enough, she knew that anything else said would more than enough to would be enough to jinx it.

And after what seemed like an hour of walking, the corridor finally gave way to a set of wooden stairs leading deeper into the ground. Jesse pressed a hard foot on the first step. It’s groan was like a roar, in the darkness, but it held strong and, most importantly, nothing seemed to reply back. Jesse was ready to go deeper down, only for Petra to put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her in her tracks.

Pulling her back a step, Petra went ahead of Jesse with her arm arched, ready to throw a torch. With a small grunt, Petra tossed it as far as she could, only for it’s path to be cut short by hitting a stone wall further ahead, remaining lit only by pure luck. Thankfully, it fell on a solid ground, only now finally expiring, their next location being once again cloaked in darkness.

And forward they went, same as before, Jesse in the front, scouting the way, while Petra placing the torches so nothing can surprise them from the back.

The same couldn’t have been said by the front.

It started with a groan. Not of a zombie, not from either of them, but from where Jesse was currently standing. It was too late, too late to do anything except throw Petra a panicked expression. And with that, the wood creaked and broke, Jesse disappearing in the darkness bellow with nothing more than a scream from which to follow.

“Jesse!” Petra didn’t care that her scream most likely alerted the zombies, Jesse just fell into a ravine full of who knows what!

Away went the plan to place torches, she needed to find Jesse before the hordes would find her. Ignoring the dangerous croaks of the wooded staircase, Petra practically flew down the stairs, nearly hitting the wall in the front of her. A wall dug out to make space for furnaces and a worker’s quarters, but there was no further signs of ore mining in this part, so the mining must have been done deeper into the ravine. In other words, there must also be stairs that go deeper into the ravine.

Petra made a sharp turn, running full sprint towards the darkness, again barely stopping herself from plunging into the ravine itself. Thankfully, she was right, the going down was only a few steps away. But stopping to sigh in relief, Petra realized something.

There were no screams coming from down the ravine, only the groans of the dead.

“No…”, she whispered to herself. No, Jesse couldn’t be dead, Petra knew she was stronger than that, but if she fell from such a height into a place like this, who know how much time will she resist down there? “No!” she whispered again to herself, this time with conviction.

Placing herself at the edge of the ravine, with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, Petra let the torch drop.

One.

Two.

Three.

It took it three seconds till it hit the zombies infested ground. No sign of Jesse so far. Time to find out if that’s a good or a bad thing.

Taking a deep breath, Petra took a leap of faith, jumping feet first. And landing on a zombie, killing it instantly. While a horde could be dangerous, especially to those unprepared, zombies were stupid, and if one could take advantage of that, the whole horde could fall by just one blade.

And so the horde fell. By one golden blade.

Petra stopped to catch her breath, even for her that was a lot. Now,where could Jesse be? She looked all around her, trying to find any sign of the black haired girl, but no luck. Nothing but tall stone walls, decorated with occasional ledge. Hmm, she could have fallen on one of those, but right now she had no way of knowing, she hadn’t had the best angle right now. Yeah, wouldn’t hurt to check.

One set of quick footsteps behind put that idea on the backburner.

“Jesse?” not the best response, but who else could there be? This couldn’t have been a zombie, but, now that she thought about it couldn’t have been Jesse either. But what could there be, hiding in the darkness?

And, her question was answered by a hard tackle to the ground by something coming from her right. With the air pushed out of her lungs, Petra could barely stop the blood red eyed zombie from munching on her face. She pushed back, but the zombie was relentless, snapping and biting at the air, inching closer and closer to her face.

Only to suddenly stop fight and moving at all, from his gaping mouth appearing a small glint.

Of a diamond sword pushed through the zombie’s mouth, stopping a few centimeters from Petra’s nose. With a twist of the sword, the zombie was thrown off her to side to never rise again.

Jesse lowered her hand and Petra grabbed it without hesitation. Closer to the other girl, now could she see the big cut above her eye and the big bruise on the same side, covering more than a quarter of her face.

“Jesse, what happened?” she asked, unable to hold in her surprise.

“I actually fell on one of those cliffs”, she pointed up towards the ravine walls. “And I just woke up when you managed to kill everything around here. Awesome, by the way. Then I saw how you were attacked. Man, I sobered instantly, I just – just couldn’t let you there! So I jumped in to help!” Jesse was interrupted by a surprise hug from Petra, one that threatened to crush her ribs. “Whoa, easy there, I think I cracked something in the fall.”

“Oh, sorry”, she reluctantly released her. “But still, that’s for scaring me half to death.” she sighed. “What now?”

“Well”, Jesse stretched, groaning softly, “we have to find the source of these zombies. You know what? I think I have an idea why there are so many zombies here. No way they appeared like that naturally, only a spawner could have made so many.”

“Oooh, I get it. And it might have been something they might have hit, right?”

“Maybe, but we won’t know until we find – “ Jesse was interrupted a series of groans. A new wave of zombies appeared from the dark. Petra threw a knowing look and a small smile at Jesse, before turning serious again, throwing herself at the horde with a warrior’s yell. Jesse shook only shook her head, joining the red head in her fight.

\---

It took them some time, clearing through a horde, then following their tracks just to be hit by another horde and so on and so forth until they finally hit the source of the zombie hordes.

Not one. Not two. But three. Three zombie spawners, placed in such a way that couldn’t be natural in any shape or form.

“Somebody did this”, murmured Petra placing torches on every free side of the spawners. Jesse simply nodded and walked closer to the metal case, watching how the souls thrashed inside, ready to break free. “Why though? Why would they do this? I mean there aren’t even chests here.”

“I don’t know”, Jesse admitted. “And we’ll probably never know.”

“Ugh, I don’t like that idea” Petra ran a hand through her hair, before crossing her arms. “I mean, I get it that the spawners might be some sort _treasure guardians_ or something like that, but putting them under a village? Yeah, that’s just evil.”

“I’m with you here, but we don’t know who did this and why,” Petra immediately deflated, but, hey, at least Jesse seemed to feel the same way, if somebody would do this to Beacontown… “Wait!”

“Hm?”

“We have a clue though!” Jesse turned back to Petra. “The shopkeeper! He told me that there was an adventurer in the village before us, but…”

“But what? This is our lead, we have to find them!”

“That’s the thing… I don’t know if they were the one who put them here.”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, the shopkeeper didn’t say much about…. her? Yeah, her! Just that she didn’t stay much and that she was in a hurry.” Jesse remained silent for a moment, thinking, connecting everything that they have learned, and looking around the room. She stopped, and sighed. “Petra, we might be thinking too hard about this.”

“Why so?” Petra lightly knocked one of the spawners. It shook, but nothing more came out of it.

“While the spawners were placed here, who knows how much time ago was this done. I mean”, Jesse waved towards the entire chamber, “look how dusty and old everything here is! What if the miners just hit this chamber at the wrong moment and activated the spawners?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Petra slowly nodded. “After all, that’s how we find dungeons, we look after activated spawners…” Petra looked at the spawners and narrowed her vision. “Now that I think about it, we should have brought some pickaxes, I don’t trust letting them just with the torches, what if they die out?”

“Well, this is a mine, I think there would be some left over pickaxes around here somewhere.” Jesse turned towards the entrance, but Petra was faster and soon Jesse found herself standing in front of the taller girl.

“Thanks, Jesse, but I think I’ll take this over this time” Jesse opened her mouth to protest, only to be silenced by Petra’s gentle touch on her bruised face. Jesse couldn’t help but hiss. It still stung. Petra sighed and retracted her hand. “Yup, you stay here. You’ll heal faster this way. And it wouldn’t hurt to buy a healing potion when we get out of here.”

And without giving Jesse the chance to argue, Petra was gone into the now light up tunnels in the search for something that would break the spawners.

Jesse thinned her lips.

Yeah, she thought about running after her, but one look at the still shaking cages put a damper on that idea. With her sword drawn, Jesse waited for Petra to return with a pickaxe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The titles comes from Death Cab for a Cutie - I will follow you into the dark


	4. Come Fly with Me

“Stop poking at it!”, Petra rubbed her face, groaning at Jesse’s new fixation, her new scar running above her eye, cutting through the eyebrow. “You’ll open it up again if you continue on like this!”

“Sorry! But it’s itchy!” while Jesse didn’t really rub it or scratch at it, she continued to trace over it with a finger.

“It’ll go away on its own” with a groan Petra turned back towards Jesse. “Never had one before?” she asked jokingly, but to her surprise, Jesse shook her head. “Wait, what? No way! C’mon Jesse, you’ve got to have a few scars from what we’ve done, right?”

This made Jesse think for a moment, only just to shrug.

“I… don’t think so,” she said towards Petra’s shocked expression. “Yeah, now that you think of it…” slowly, Petra’s realization hit her too.

“The Wither Storm?” Jesse shook her head. “The Sky City?” again, Jesse shook her head. “The White Pumpkin? PAMA? The Old Builders?” for each one, Jesse shook his head, leaving Petra even more speechless.

“I think – I think, just Romeo and his creations left – no, left bruises at most… A few burns… ,” and Jesse lost herself in thought, mumbling about the stuff Romeo made her pass through.

Petra still tried to decipher this information. She knew Jesse was a something else when it came towards adventuring and fighting, even if she hadn’t had the look and acted nothing like it. There were times where Petra looked at Jesse, finding the wimp, _sorry Jesse_ , from all those years ago, only to be brought back to reality. But even then, even if Jesse wasn’t what she seemed at first look, this was borderline impossible, how could she not have any scars from all of their adventures? They had enough stories to fill in a small book!

“Ok, Petra, look.”

“Huh?” now she saw that Jesse was looking at her. “Sorry, lost in thought too…” Jesse nodded nonplussed and continued.

“I was either very good at what I’m doing,” Jesse could help but awkwardly laugh, “or I’m very lucky.”

“Weeell,” Petra thinned her lips, eyes moving in another direction. “at the moment, good isn’t a high enough description for you.” with the corner of her eye, she saw how Jesse’s cheeks took a pinkish hue. At least _she_ could excuse it with being thanks to the Sun. “But at the start,” here Petra couldn’t help herself from chuckling, “yeah, you had luck on your side.” Petra stopped for a short second. “At the best of times.” A mischievous smile appeared on Petra’s face.

“Oh no, I know what you’re thinking about, and I don’t like it.” Petra ignored her. Jesse rubbed a tired hand on her forehead.

“Smashing my/your head on that chicken machine.” They said in unison, Jesse still facepalming, and Petra dumbly smiling, a rare sight in of itself.

“Yeah, thanks for reminding me of that”, Jesse shook her head, tossing hair in her face, and went forward through the tree trunks. “I totally nailed the landing, though.” she mumbled afterwards.

For this Petra didn’t say anything, just shrugged and marked another tree in their way, they ran circles in some forests like this, at least now to learn their lesson.

\---

Munching on a baked potato, Petra looked over their newly made map while Jesse searched the horizon over. They travelled pretty far by now, the last village is more than a few days away.

Nothing much in these parts, unfortunately. Some empty huts, used by them as temporary homes, some stone circles, some normal caves, but nothing truly interesting.

Hmm, what if they went north? Or north east? They’ve been walking east all this time. Only east. Or even south could be good. Maybe, they’d hit an ocean, see a sunken ship, another sea temple, who knows… Or maybe not a sea temple, Romeo was already enough, who knows what dark, hidden creature might they find?

…Another time maybe.

Now that she thought about it. What is Romeo doing these days? He seemed repentant enough, or at least that how it looked from Jesses’ eyes. While, yes, he truly was a different person once his powers were taken away, but that doesn’t mean she’ll trust him from the get go, he’s got to earn it still.

There’s a difference between seeing herself in him and trusting him after he tormented them.

And now he’s gone to the Underneath. That’ll be interesting. His coming back won’t be a pretty one, especially when Xara is gonna get her hands on him. With a bitter chuckle, Petra wondered who she’s gonna be more sorry for. Romeo, for what’s about to come to him? Or Xara, who’s about to face some painful past?

One thing’s for sure, she didn’t want to find out.

\---

Well, well, well. He’s an idiot, that’s for sure.

One, bedrocking an entire world blotted out the sun, so mobs will be spawning endlessly. Two, as The Admin, he got bored fast, and created stuff that he would either throw at the Sunshine Institute or in the Underneath. Like that Tri - Ghast. Or the giant Enderman!

Or his favorite right now, the Giant Spider-Creeper that follows him non-stop ever since he entered the Underneath, always skittering or softly hissing, hiding surprisingly well, for his size, just out of the corner of his eye.

Well, bollocks. He didn’t even remember when he made it.

For the moment, Romeo considered himself safe. He lost the creature. For now.

Wait. No. He hears the skittering. As stealthily and subtly possible for him, he looked over the cliff side, but there was no sign of the monster.

How? He heard it clearly, it must have come from this side. Either from bellow or –

_Hisssss._

Oh no.

Now he knew why he couldn’t see it…

Romeo looked up.

A creeper face looked back at him.

Romeo never ran so fast once in his life.

Well, this turned out to be one of the many times he missed his Admin powers. He thought, while sliding down the cliff, he was blasted into, and falling painfully on his face on the cobblestone ground.

 _Well_ , he thought, while getting himself on his feet and dusting dust off his T-shirt, _at least things can’t any worse than this?_

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” He and his big mouth. “Turn back slowly and give us all of your stuff.” He didn’t have anything, but better to say that face to face. So, without any other choice, other than running away, of course, but that was the riskier one. “Good, good, now – Hey, wait a second?” the scavenger with the pig hat looked very carefully at Romeo, there was something like recognition in those eyes. “You seem familiar, have we seen before?”

Judging from the red eyes, they were his people. Not that it mattered in this moment.

“No! I’m new here! New through these parts, I mean!”

“It’s you!” they all said, preparing their weapons.

“Who?” Romeo, subtly as he could, prepare to make his exit.

“Don’t play with us! We know who you are. It’s only your fault that our world is like this!” said another one of the raiders with a venomous hiss.

“Wait one second, boys, “said the pig hat scavenger. “Look at him, doesn’t he look a little … powerless?”

Gulp!

And at this moment, Romeo started running for his dear life while the gang of scavenger started following him thirsty for revenge.

He screwed up big time, didn’t he?

\---

…Eh, he’s gonna be alright down there. His enemies will probably kill each other in their search for him. Who knows? Until their next visit in the Underneath, it seems.

“Petra, come look!” Jesse called out for her with an excited look, only to turn back at the horizon.

“What’s up?” with the last bites of the potato in her mouth she asked. Jesse pointed out to the horizon, somewhere near a mountain range. “What…?” she whispered to herself, squinting her eyes. Something must be there, among the snow cap, the grey cliffs, the shining gold block, the cloudy sky – Wait what?!

There was a random gold block at the top of one of the mountain, unmistakable in that white background.

Petra looked at Jesse with a smile that said only one thing. They finally found a structure! Treasure and adventure awaits somewhere in the location of the gold block!

“Well, what do we wait for? Let’s go!” and with that Petra was gone, running down the hill towards the mountain range.

“Wait – “ but it was too late, Petra was too far to hear, or, more correctly, to listen to Jesse. She sighed, pushed a stray strand hair behind her ear, and, with a small chuckle and smile, Jesse ran after her. Frustrating, yes, but also the reason he like to be here, she made everything exciting.

\---

“Oh… Oh my… Oh my… Ugh!” Petra collapsed next to the base of the mountain, with one hand raising herself to stand on a stone block. “Maybe I was a bit… overexcited…” she said, between gasps.

“Really? Huh, didn’t realize it,” Petra did not get spooked; she just fell backwards, from surprise, while loudly vocalizing. “Ah,” she winced, “sorry.”

“Jerk,” she mumbled, legs twitching. “You could have warned me you were coming. I would have been ready, you know?”

“I was right behind you,” with a smirk, Jesse crossed his arms.

“Oh,” Petra raised herself back on the stone block. “You know, I’ve got to admit, you really got into shape the last few days, you don’t look tired at all, just a bit sweaty.” Petra looked at the mountain, the gold block still being visible and at the top of something white, something that wasn’t snow. “Alright then, time to scale up the mountain!” and with a groan she raised herself up, turning to face heights.

“You sure? I mean we can wait a few more minutes until you’re better rested.”

But Petra shook her head.

“Nah, I’m fine,” she took a moment to stretch. Looking back at Jesse, she had raised an eyebrow. “Really, I’m fine, no need to look at me like that! And look, the sun will set by the time we’ll reach the peak, so the faster we go, faster we can set up camp! She said while, slowly but surely, starting to climb up. “Also, it seems I’m the rusty one all of the sudden.” she mumbled, hearing how Jesse was starting to follow.

\---

Yeah, she really was a bit rusty. And she probably should have eaten sometime more before the climb. Gone were the slopes, now it was just pure steep, icy cliffs. One wrong step and down they go.

She should have took a break when they arrived at a straighter ground, but she, instead continued to climb nonstop, just now feeling how her strength was starting to diminish. And at the worst moment of them all, near the top of the mountain. C’mon, c’mon, she was so close, she’ll rest when she’s at the peak.

And then her hand slipped on an ice patch.

“Ahhh!” hanging around on a single hand, Petra held on for dear life.

“Petra!” screamed Jesse, trying to climb faster. “I’m coming! Try to hold on!”

Petra nodded, trying so, but, even then, her fingers didn't have the strength to hold on forever. It stated with a cramp, then with pain, and then they started to slip one by one until Petra found herself free falling.

It all happened so quick. Suddenly the world began to fall, and it came just as suddenly to a stop.

The cold wind passed through Petra’s hair, but she didn’t register it.

Jesse had caught her.

She sat in a bizarre position, still in a climber’s position, but leaning towards her. The center of gravity was her, she should have fallen by now, so why hasn’t she? Petra gulped hard, dreading the moment where she would lose her grip, but it never came.

Now she saw why, her hand wasn’t gripping on a ledge. The ledge was part of a crack, and she jammed her hand in the crack.

“Jesse… you’re stuck…” was the first thing that came into her mind.

“Not for long,” the smile she sported wasn’t a happy one. “Ok, Petra, I have a plan,” she said with a groan. “The top is close, isn’t it?” Petra nodded, just after he looked at her after checking out the mountain peak. “Ok, let go of me when I give you the signal.”

And Jesse started waving her arm. Petra held on Jesse’s hand tighter as she inched closer to the cliff face. But before she could hit it, she went backwards, farther than her original spot.

Ah, now she got it.

When she came back to the cliff, she came feet first. The moment they came in contact with the stone, she pushed, throwing herself backwards, until she was at the same level with Jesse.

It wasn’t enough. Just one more push, that’s all they needed.

When Petra came back, she put all her strength in her feet and pushed as hard as she could. When she was over Jesse, that’s when she gave her the signal.

“Now!”

And she let go.

For a moment, time went to a crawl and the edge of the top came closer and closer to her. Then reality hit her. She put her hands forward and she hit the top.

But before she could celebrate, the snow gave out, letting her slip to the edge once again. No! Not again! She grabbed the first thing she could put her hands upon and held on.

Petra stopped sliding.

Letting go of the breath she didn’t know she held in, Petra checked the ground around her and only then she let go of the stone.

“Jesse? Are you alright?” she inched closer to the edge, trying to lean her head over it.

“Yeah, yeah”, just as if she was summoned, Jesse’s head appeared over the ledge, “I’m” with a great groan, Jesse pushed herself on the snowy ground, “fine.” And then he remained there, short for breath. “Huh, that was something, wasn’t it?” he said with a wry smile, head turning towards Petra.

“Yup, really was.” she chuckled.

“Alright, I think I rested enough,” Jesse raised herself up, just to find herself face to face with Petra’s stern face.

“No, you didn't,” she said with a tone that didn’t leave room for arguments. “Look at what happened because I didn’t rest.” Petra half guided her, half pushed her towards a boulder away from the ledge. “So let’s just sit and… I dunno, watch the sunset. The structure can’t be far…” Petra looked towards the supposed location of the gold block, finding it and finding the marble tower it stood atop on. “Oh, nice.”

“So, what are we waiting for?” Petra’s answer was to push her back down and go next to side.

“For us to feel better rested, what else?” Petra plopped down next to Jesse, sighing and letting her shoulders slump.

Jesse didn’t complain. Yeah, here she was right, she was tired, her arm was sore, she only wanted to be somewhere inside to rest, but watching the sunset with Petra alleviated some of those worries. It was quiet, cold but not uncomfortably so, and it was like the was something here, something special that made them ignore the world around them.

Without thinking, Jesse rested her head on her shoulder. The armor, although cold, felt surprisingly comfortable, enough to make her want to snuggle closer to Petra

When Jesse came back to her senses, it was too late already. Petra rested her head atop of hers, and more than that, she also wrapped her arm around her side. Oh! Oh… This is nice, heh, not what he expected. At the very least, she expected Petra to push away from her.

So, with such an occasion, Jesse did what was natural, she placed her arm around Petra’s side, like she did to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title comes from Frank Sinatra - Come Fly with Me


End file.
